Steve Blank

JUNE 10, 2010

Once they found a profitable business model they realized that scale required external venture capital to fuel rapid expansion. With venture capital came accountability to board members, forecasts, and other people’s agendas. Success for this new division meant generating substantial revenue and profit for company.

Silicon Valley 328

Silicon Valley Entrepreneur United States New York City 328

Steve Blank

JULY 15, 2010

If you take funding from a venture capital firm or angel investor and want to build a large, enduring company (rather than sell it to the highest bidder), this isn’t the decade to do it. The collapse of the IPO market and dysfunctional math in the venture capital community has stacked the odds against you. Here’s why.

Venture Capital 297

Venture Capital IPO Liquidity Event Entrepreneur 297

Steve Blank

JUNE 23, 2016

Second, the leaders of these companies tended to be those who excelled at finance, supply chain or production. Intel under their last two CEOs delivered more revenue and profit than any ever before. Risk capital has provided financing for new ideas in the form of startups. Startups are unencumbered by the status quo.

Architecture 227

Architecture IRR Balance Sheet Liquidity Event 227

Steve Blank

JANUARY 4, 2010

Now with customers and early revenue, it was out raising its first round of venture money. Lets take venture capital and grow this thing into a real business.”. They used Customer and Agile development to search for a scalable and repeatable business model to become a large company. The Scalable Startup.

Hockey Stick 276

Hockey Stick Venture Capital Startup Cofounder 276

Steve Blank

AUGUST 31, 2009

The first hint lies in its name; this is a product development model, not a marketing model, not a sales hiring model, not a customer acquisition model, not even a financing model (and we’ll also find that in most cases it’s even a poor model to use to develop a product.) So what’s wrong the product development model? Where Are the Customers?

Customer Development 238

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 238

This is going to be BIG.

MARCH 1, 2010

It’s often some combination of the idea not being big enough to sustain a venture exit or the company just not being appropriate for venture financing. My company was not well executed enough to achieve venture capital financing—and that wasn’t the city’s fault, it was mine. I was there, too.

New York City 113

New York City New York Startup Burn Rate 113

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 29, 2020

Most importantly, the phrase “ bootstrapping a startup ” translates into “growing your business with little or no venture capital or outside investment. It means relying on your own savings and revenue to operate and expand.”. Thus, you must manage your available finances wisely. Implement the “lean startup” philosophy.

Bootstrapping 85

Bootstrapping Global Startup Hungary 85

BeyondVC

FEBRUARY 12, 2014

With a focus on seed investing in the mobile, agile, and smart enterprise and business models that harness the power of network effects, our entrepreneurs have successfully been able to raise over $200 million of financing following our initial seed investment. focus on the mobile, agile, and smart enterprise".

Seed Stage 110

Seed Stage Agile Viral API 110

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 7, 2010

There are few courses which teach aspiring entrepreneurs the skills (business models, customer and agile development, design thinking, etc.) We’ll build the class around the business model / customer development / agile development solution stack. Class Lecture/Out of the Building Assignment: What’s a revenue model?

Wiki 311

Wiki Lean Management Business Model 311

Altgate

SEPTEMBER 16, 2010

But did you know that founder Markus Frind has just 3 employees for his $10MM+ revenue business? Unfortunately they will be very expensive (30-50% or more of gross revenue). The key is to get the outsourced team locked in for the long term and to build your own lean/agile culture. He basically outsources everything.

Software Review 65

Software Review Offshore Startup Boston 65

Cracking the Code

SEPTEMBER 19, 2017

billion in revenues (growing 39% year-on-year) and $25B of market cap. Compared to Salesforce, the industry leader, the stats were not too dissimilar over the same period: its market cap grew by $19B and its revenue increased by $3.3B. From a revenue standpoint, 58 companies have already crossed the $5M per year mark and 29 are $15M+.

Europe 83

Europe Cloud API 83

rapidrollout.wordpress.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

You’re asking someone to take a chance that with the code they deliver you can get funding or gain some revenue traction. If you can do it for $5000 to $15,000, you’re likely to be able to finance it with a deferred payment or a loan from friends and family. That may be attractive to some people. But let me put it this way.

Technical Review 40

Technical Review Fractional CTO Partner CTO Hire 40

Steve Blank

MAY 4, 2009

But without sales there is no revenue, and without revenue there is no company. All the strategic thinking in the world won’t make up for a missed revenue plan. If sales revenue and profits are high enough, we could take the company public or sell it, and the stock would be worth more than the paper it was printed on.

Silicon Valley 126

Silicon Valley RSS Non-Compete California 126

Steve Blank

JUNE 8, 2009

Business and Revenue Model – How do we organize to make money? Waterfall, Agile, Lean? Seed and Follow-on Financing – How do your finance it? Intellectual Property/Patents – Strategic or Tactical, timing? Regulatory Issues – What are they? Time to Market – How long? Product Development – How do you engineer it?

Vertical 122

Vertical Silicon Valley RSS Marketing 122

blog.simeonov.com

FEBRUARY 22, 2010

I have been thinking a lot recently about how to apply agile development principles to investing and key aspects of startup development such as team building. Both stem from the agile principle of delaying decisions until the last responsible moment. The first post is about agile startup fundraising. more details ].

Founder 44

Founder Vesting Agile Startup 44

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 1, 2010

Storm Clouds - A VC : Venture Capital and Technology , November 12, 2010 We have enjoyed an amazing run in the web startup and investing space over the past five or six years. Competing To Win Deals - A VC : Venture Capital and Technology , November 7, 2010 The venture capital business is highly competitive.

Technical Review 175

Technical Review Technology Product CTO Hire 175

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 10, 2009

In future posts I’ll describe how Eric Ries and the Lean Startup concept provided the equivalent model for product development activities inside the building and neatly integrates customer and agile development. After twelve months Handspring’s revenue was $170 million. They never understood Market Type. Why does Market Type matter?

Customer Development 196

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 196